Kashmir Shaivism

I would say that...

if you engage with uh some forms of Kashmir Shaivism for example uh you find that you know wonder is if you like the end goal is just to to find astonishment and amazement uh in everything even really small things so that's i guess something that's come out of my tantra practice that i'm now not even prescribing but just suggesting might be an interesting direction for curse magic to take itself It's interesting that you mentioned the whole idea of the left hand and the right hand path because that is a classic example of a binary distinction.

Like other binary distinctions, one is valorised over the other.

And you get people saying, oh, I'm on the right hand path.

And from Kashmir, you had this constant osmosis of Sanskrit scholars.

At the same time, there is Kashmir Shaivism and Abhinavagupta and all these great, uh, people who are developing, uh, you know, Kashmir as a seat of knowledge, that the Buddhism is also traveling from there to China, to other parts of Southeast Asia, from Odisha, from, uh, various, uh, regions-

Yeah

... from through Sou- Southern India, which Ashoka tried.

Yeah.

Kashmiri Shaivism is, I mean, almost very similar to Advaita except for very minor differences where the Atman, Brahman or Shiva,

that's the difference there.

Yeah.

You know, you are fearless even in any situation because of the tantra background.

I see this yogis are far more equipped.

in Kashmiri Shaivism than anywhere else.

That Tantra is now spread among almost like, you know, temple architectures, argamas.

There's the Advaitas, the Vistadvaitas, and the Advaitas schools of thought.

Then they get the Tantric, the Shakta school, the Saiva school, and the Vaishnava school, right? And then you get the Kashmiri Shaivism, and you get the different, different types of Shaivism.

Doesn't mean Shaivism is Shaivism, right? And, um, you know, the Agamas and Vedanta.

Vedanta and Agamas is like they supposedly supporting each other, but they fight with each other.

You just stop everything as a way to not grasp and not be averse, you know.

So this is more the tantric or the Kashmir Shaivism or the… You know, going right into the Mahamudra.

So, you know, there's a story that there was a time in North India when Mahamudra developed because it developed prior to Tibet.

Tibetans took it over.

Then, in the mid-1990s, he met his teacher, Francis Lucille, whose first words Rupert heard were, Meditation is a universal yes to everything.

Francis introduced Rupert to the direct path teachings of Atmananda Krishnamenon and the tantric approach of Kashmir Shaivism, which Francis had received from his teacher, John Klein.

Of the essence of these years, Rupert writes, the greatest discovery in life is to discover that our essential nature does not share the limits nor the destiny of the body and mind.

Now, about three or four years ago, I was on Amazon.com and looking through one of my favorite parts of Amazon, customers who bought this book also bought And I came across a book by Rupert Spira.

I was like, okay.

So I'm laying in bed one night and I see a TikTok and it's just like Kashmir Shaivism.

There's these sequences of 112 tantric meditation practices and the thousand-year-old text.

I think it's called, gosh, I can't remember what it's called.

Yeah, here it is.

It's the Vinyana Bhairava.

Yeah, it's an ancient tantric text from a thousand years ago that's unique to this, you know, this Shaivic, it's called Shaivic, Shaivism or Kashmir Shaivism, right? Long story short, so I didn't really know what to expect.

I just thought it was interesting and it sort of caught that spark in my eye that I was like, there's something to this.

His many books include The Nature of Consciousness, Being aware of being aware, you are the happiness you seek and the shining of being.

His work draws from the great non-dual traditions, including Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Sufism, Zen, and mystical Christianity, while remaining deeply experiential and accessible.

From an early age, Rupert was drawn to the nature of reality and the source of lasting peace and happiness.

He spent many years immersed in contemplative practice, philosophical inquiry, and artistic work as a potter before eventually turning towards writing and teaching.

When you use words like consciousness or awareness, are you referring to something subtle that we all experience or to the knowing presence in which all experience appears?

I'm referring to something that seems to be subtle until it's been recognized and In which case, it's obvious.

As they say in the tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, I'm paraphrasing, consciousness is more hidden than the most concealed of things, and yet more evident than the most obvious of things.

So yes, it's subtle, mysterious, hidden, until it's obvious.

See, a yogi meditates, turns within, and throws off the agitation, goes beyond it, and finds inner peace.

And according to Shaivism, that's half the battle.

That's Atma Vyapti.

That's the ability to touch the self in meditation.

The Buddha was about 500 BC.

The Upanishads and the Vedas were from similar time.

And then Kashmir Shaivism began around 800 or something like that.

When do you think Epictetus would be alive? Do you have any idea? Give me somebody.

So I'm pretty much coming closer to the initial arc of describing my journey.

But what I would say next is that my involvement with Siddha Yoga then became involvement with a lineage that very broadly has been called Kashmir Shaivism, but more recently, I think, and more appropriately, it's called Nandul Shaiva Tantra,

and

even more recently, Nandul Shakti Shaiva Tantra, which I'll get into in a moment, because, well, let me just get right into that point.